CBI gets 6-day custody of Tunda in blast case

The CBI on Tuesday took alleged Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) operative Syed Abdul Karim alias Tunda in custody to quiz him on his supposed role in orchestrating five train blasts on the night of December 5-6, 1993, the first anniversary of the Babri Masjid demolition.

The CBI on Tuesday took alleged Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) operative Syed Abdul Karim alias Tunda in custody to quiz him on his supposed role in orchestrating five train blasts on the night of December 5-6, 1993, the first anniversary of the Babri Masjid demolition.

The explosions had left two persons dead and 22 injured.

On a request by the CBI’s special task force, an Ajmer court remanded Tunda (68) in the agency’s custody for a week to enable it to establish his role, if any, in the blasts and that of convicted terrorist Jalees Ansari in cities including Jaipur and Mumbai.

Tunda is an accused in the Rajdhani Express blast case, which is being tried in the Ajmer court.

He was lodged at Tihar jail, from where he was taken to Ajmer and produced before the court.

“The blasts occurred on five prestigious trains. After taking up the probe, the CBI found that the five blasts were the result of a single conspiracy, the cases were clubbed together and a single charge sheet was submitted in the designated Ajmer court in August 1994,” said a CBI source.

“Tunda had been absconding since the blasts took place and was arrested by Delhi’s special cell at the India-Nepal border on August 16 last year.

In February 2004, the designated Ajmer court had convicted 15 other accused in the case,” the source said.